LEGO Pokémon sets announced!

Wow!

The Pikachu build is not as good as all the others. Since I'm not a Pokémon fan my main focus are new part molds and recolors we'll hopefully be getting from this theme.

I'm afraid I'm a little too young for Pokemon as it was a little before my time, but clearly these sets are aimed at older collectors anyways. I am sure many people born in the nineteen-hundreds will eat this up, despite the outrageous prices.

Nice sets, but I've never been into the buildable animals , so polite pass. The kanto badges & the mini pokemon center are neat, but wake me up when they announce minifig scaled sets.

No black tip on Pikachu’s tail.

Mandela Effect (IYKYK)

@ShilohCyan said:
" @iwybs said:
"Eevee looks great and the price is higher than I would like but reasonable by licensed set standards."

Mega had a giant Eevee set twice as big for 3/4 the price, and another this size for $20-25, and a kinetic sculpture Pikachu that size for $100. These prices are only reasonable if you've never looked outside of Lego. "

Licensed Lego set standards. I've got a few of the Mega Construx Pokémon sets, including the kinetic Pikachu you mentioned, and they're very good.

Eevee looks great, Pikachu not so much, I think it's the neck for me.

The startes look pretty good but the base takes up way to many pieces, that bump up the price. Overall a solid start, too bad the badge box is not a normal set and that mini PKMN Center is pretty cute.

Never before have I wanted such a wildly expensive set lol

These all look great but a little out of my price range. Luckily I have enough points to get the Pokémon Center (yes, it's -er) since I bought a few Ninjago sets this year.

Seeing the price of 72153 makes 10366 suddenly feel like an absolute bargain!

Easy pass.

Eevee looks incredible, Pikachu's face is presenting oddly, and the 3 Kanto starters in the middle. Looking forward to future, more interesting PKMN though. Hopefully this is the start of a long line.

Out of all these sets, the only one I would want is the gym badge set which of course has a $650 pay wall.

What's the legality of buying the set, getting the GWP, and then returning it...?

I'd rather buy 3 and a half times
https://pantasy.com/collections/new-release/products/pantasy-architecture-firm-85041
netting 3,300 x 3,5 = 11,500 pieces.
With the better Go Bricks.
And fully pad printed.
Oh, and it has lighting, too. 3,5 times the lighting.

That reminds me: Why isn't the lightning on the Pikachu set illuminated?
Actually, why isn't any of the sets illuminated? There is some fire and lightning going on, isn't it?

I’ll take one of each

They look good, but the big set isn’t ‘nearly’ £600 good. Some crazy prices.

Funny how not even the photo model seems to have any fun. xD

If the gym badges had exclusive prints I would've been upset. I will source the parts on my own later.

And that on the same day Mattel announces an autistic Barbie.
This is just too much!

@person_that_uses_brickset said:
"Looks almost exactly like what Mega Blocks was doing."

Who'd have thought.

@ulibu said:
"I'd rather buy 3 and a half times
https://pantasy.com/collections/new-release/products/pantasy-architecture-firm-85041
netting 3,300 x 3,5 = 11,500 pieces.
With the better Go Bricks.
And fully pad printed.
Oh, and it has lighting, too. 3,5 times the lighting.

That reminds me: Why isn't the lightning on the Pikachu set illuminated?
Actually, why isn't any of the sets illuminated? There is some fire and lightning going on, isn't it?
"

Not sure I see them as like for like but nothing stopping you - go for it.

Not a Pokemon fan, but the big one looks awesome. Very impressive. I can just see there being another bum fight over the GWP. These will be hoovered up and on eBay for silly money right after launch. With not being a fan of Pokemon, at least my wallet is safe on this one lol.

@AcademyofDrX said:
" @ScholtzTKO said:
"650$ LOL its a kid show...what are we even doing st this point?"
It's been a kids show for about twenty-five years, which means that many of its fans are now adults with spending money."

Try to buy a Shadowless Charizard card

@CliveyB said:
"I'm not a Pokémon fan, but these look amazing!
Unfortunately the prices are ridiculous, even allowing for the licence uplift. "

Prices are still cheap as even this line will be sold out, Lego is no longer afraid to keep raising prices to curb increasing global demand which they still can't cover

I'm a fan of LEGO and Pokémon, but I'll pass these sets. They are not for me.

The Eevee is perhaps the strongest, but it is still too blocky for my taste. And relies too much on prints for the character. The trio set is just way too big, although I'm sure it has a lot of interesting building.

I'm not a Pokemon fan so I'm not buying any but I am impressed at how fairly priced they are (part count wise)

I’m a huge Lego and Pokémon fan. That said, there’s no way I’m buying these sets. I don’t have the money, or the necessary room in my house to display them. Hopefully we’ll get minifigure-scale ones in the next wave.

A wise man once said: this is insane, folks.

@Nuclearxpotato said:
"Pikachu's face seems to be the roughest aspect of this reveal, otherwise everything looks pretty good.

@Tobywan said:
"Didn't expect some to be so huge. At least no smart bricks yet!"

This is the 18+ line. The proper line will be revealed on February 27th, which is Smart Brick focused according to patents."

The "off look" of Picachu's face is the printed mouth- should have been brick built

600 eurs? I wondered how Pokémon turned to lego from mega, and now I see... they promised to sell 600eur sets... well, maybe to say they promised to produce... not sure how well they will be sold... damn... glad that this is not my thing

@Koentinius said:
"These should not have come with bases, which unnecessarily inflate the price to the ridiculous level these sets have. These would've sold like hotcakes if they were all like the Eevee model."

I feel like this is a case where Lego wanted to make a Pikachu set at the $200 price point so they included some BS to bring the price up to where they want it to be. Instead of the base, they should have just made it two Pokemon if they wanted to do that price.

@PixelTheDragon said:
"The sets need to be smaller so they are accessible to kids. Having a few adult collector things is fine, but Mega Blocks had little capsules for like $5 that made their Pokémon stuff extremely accessible."

How dare you insinuate LEGO is for kids? ;-)

As I own 2 Pokésets from Mega, they now feel more special :D
Especially the superior Pokémon center.

@PixelTheDragon said:
"The sets need to be smaller so they are accessible to kids. Having a few adult collector things is fine, but Mega Blocks had little capsules for like $5 that made their Pokémon stuff extremely accessible."

But then the adults would just push the kids out of the way. Got to buy them all.

Interesting how everyone is different. I'm not into the theme, but they look ok...Nothing special, especially for those prices. Charizard is interesting, but I'd never pay $650 for a LEGO set. From rough glances, I'd say MEGA seemed to hit the shapes better, but then again, I'm not a fan of the theme so never really looked into those sets or the actual characters in depth.

While I’m not a Pokemon fan myself, I must admit that these sets are really cool!

Pikachu's head looks very rough. I do like the lightning base. Everything else is well done. I'm surprised by how well they captured Eevee's fur. That trio is one impressive statement piece.

Waiting for the playsets.

The designs are all good, but these prices... man, they are absolutely insane!

I just want some mining sets, kinda like the Jurassic Park ones

Blokees, I choose you!

Not what I was expecting. Those prices are not for children. Are they doing a adult display range and then a child friendy price point range cause thats a wild what they have come up with.

I think they look fantastic. Pikachu looks a bit odd on the renders but I have a feeling he’ll look better in real life. The pose with the closed ball is adorable.

I mean, great for adults, but nothing really wowed me from Mega's sets, especially for the price.

I don't think I'm gonna collect them but I've to admit, they kook good.

@Nuclearxpotato said:
"Pikachu's face seems to be the roughest aspect of this reveal, otherwise everything looks pretty good."

@Tobywan said:
"The proper line will be revealed on February 27th, which is Smart Brick focused according to patents."

soooo overpriced for the sake of an unreliable gimmick? cooool.

I like them more the more I look at them but unfortunately my budget doesn’t grow at the same rate. I’m not saying they’re overpriced - the price seems about right for the size and quality. But they’re still expensive and… well, I guess I have some sulking to do.

Yeah… no

MEGA definitely had the right ideas since Lego is following suit but Lego's prices are just outrageously greedy by comparison. Hopefully the Poke tax gets reduced on future releases because even though it looks great, Eevee is a tough sell.

I choose you, wallet! I won't be buying these (I like and appreciate Pokemon, but wouldn't really call myself a fan). Silly quips aside, they look amazing. As giant sets go, that trio seems fairly reasonably priced, and the GWP is a perfect added touch without feeling like "was originally part of the set, but then pulled out to make it a GWP."

Me and my wallet will happily pass on this theme, I was never a fan.

I think we already have a winner for the worst GWP for 2026. The badge case is underwhelming to say the least.

As soon as LEGO acquired Pokemon: "Squeeze LEGO, squeeze hard" -Baron Harkonnen

Agree with everyone else about Pikachu. The tail is fine, the ears are a bit off (they should taper along more of their length) but not too bad, but the contouring of the face is really bad. The cheeks and mouth area are lumpy and don't blend in with the upper face, and it's really distracting.

@ScholtzTKO said:
"650$ LOL its a kid show...what are we even doing st this point?"

72153 is basically a UCS Red/Blue set. Red/Blue international (i.e. not JP only) came out over 27 years ago, so everyone who grew up with those starters is in their 30s at the youngest. It's also, as has been mentioned above, a *huge* set, over 6,800 pieces, and works out to 9.5¢/piece.

Pokémon is also a *huge* thing, so it really doesn't seem odd for it to get the UCS treatment, either.

I went to see the Mega sets because of the comments. The Eevee is still relatively expensive and looks much worse. The Pika looks also even worse.
No surprise ...

These all look incredible. Wow. I’m impressed.

@zanthrax said:
"And that on the same day Mattel announces an autistic Barbie.
This is just too much!"

Why? Is it priced $300.00 or something?

These aren't awful looking sets in their own right but MEGA was able to do so much more at far more affordable pricepoints. You could get sets of the Kanto starters that come with their entire evolutionary line and their combined part count would only be a little over a sixth of the LEGO version.

Shame that Venusaur is part of the trio, I want only the green boy...

Let’s face it: Lego is too much relying on licenses. How many original themes are there? Ninjago? city? Friends? Even Technic is now 80% licensed, very often with vehicles that look very generic. Do they feel licensed sets sell better?

@MugenLazlo said:
" @ScholtzTKO said:
"650$ LOL its a kid show...what are we even doing st this point?"

It’s an 18+ set. 18+ sets are for adult collectors.
"

Well of course but still

"Can You Catch and Build Them All?" ... More like can you AFFORD them all?!?

My brother and I occasionally swap stories about the absurdity of the aftermarket prices of our respective hobbies (he was a Pokemon fan and now his daughter is showing interest) - I shudder to think that what GWP is going to go for a week after release...

Gotta catch none at that prize, the Pikachu set is over priced and the trio together looks really good but these should all of been individually released and how much is the display base over inflating these prices? Display bases can be made easier enough they're just adding to the piece count here and over pricing the sets particularly in the set with the trio.

Amongst all the hysterical reactions the one thing I can agree with is, is that Pikachu seems slightly off. Therefore, I though I'd have a look at the Mega versions that people are raving about. What!! Not a single version comes close to Lego's effort. And I still think it isn't great.

I said earlier there is no way The Pokémon Company would sign off on something they weren't happy with, but the Mega sets show that perhaps they are more forgiving than I gave them credit for. But it also shows why they switched the licence to Lego.

LEGO are accused of cribbing off of Megablox? This level of dissatisfaction makes this an honorary Star Wars post.

Man honestly these look like offbrand products.

Two massive swings from Lego in January, two insanely massive misses.
Nothing different and definitely not better than what Mega had done with the license, except for the incredulous price increases.

Pokemon is a kids brand that has plenty of adult fans, but these sets and prices are ridiculous for who the main target audience of the series is. I know smaller sets are due for a release later this year but what an abject failure from Lego for the second time in a row.

My 10 year old is a pokemaniac who didn't love what mega did (and they had very limited releases here) and loved the look of Eevee, but not for that price, it's not accessible for the majority of kids.

This will be the second massive Lego news drop to the general public that just cannot be supported and explained well by long time Lego fans.

My Pokemon sets were very good, the fear was always whether Lego could do similar.

Heh, the two that I really like and would strongly consider buying are also the only non-traditional retail sets.

*sigh*

@ShinyBidoof said:
" @johnnytifosi said:
"They managed to fumble the face of the franchise pretty bad. The MEGA version of Pikachu was way better and cheaper, this one belongs in the uncanny valley. The starter trio looks better but the prices overall are ridiculous. They wasted a lot of pieces on useless bases."

Given how protective The Pokemon Company are of their IP you have to assume they have signed off on the design."

Given how bad Pokemon Z-A was. I think their quality control is non-existent.

Wow, Pikachu's face looks positively awful. For a set of that scale/size it's kind of flabbergasting how it doesn't look better than that.

The larger combination set should of been 3. I can imagine the internal debates over that playing out.

Just shy of $1000 AUD. Madness. Once they have exhuasted the cashed up AFOLs and pokeman fans its going to need some hefty discounts to shift that stock.

Could we for the first time see a re-release where its broken out into independent and more manageable purchases.

Am I the only one who thinks that Charizard stand looks…awkward, to say the least?

@SaggyCloud said:
"This is exactly what I feared when Lego got the license from Mega. The average cost of the Mega sets was like $30 and appealed to every age range. Instead, Lego gives us these "adult" sets with an average price of $300. Lego really thinks that even adults can afford a $300+ set for every intellectual property in this economy, or do they just not care anymore about selling things average people can afford."

This exactly.

I'm kinda disappointed Lego didn't do anything more creative with these, these could just as well have been Mega sets, well apart from the price obviously. And both with (square faced) Eevee and (puffy faced) Pikachu, I can't really sey I see a clear improvement here over what Mega did. The only real posiutive is all decorations seem to be prints, no stickers. But all in all, to me seems a clear case of the big bad companies win, we consumers lose.

no offense but
stoopid

EDIT: wait actually feel free to take offense. i really dont care.

@SearchlightRG said:
"Am I the only one who thinks that Charizard stand looks…awkward, to say the least?"

I don't know exactly about the anatomy od Pokemon.......but it indeed looks kinda painful....

My nephews are both hard-core Pokemon fans (now adults who go on a Pokemon hunt every other weekends) - while they both work, they said, they cannot justify spending that sort of money on sets like that. The Kanto starters should be 3 separate sets: it is easier to buy 3 sets of 200-ish over a year or two than one big sum of 650 (900 in Canada).

As for me, I've played my first Pokemon game ever recently on the Switch 2 - I kind of like it but I certainly do not have a strong attachment to the theme (wanted to know what it's all about). I'll get the Eevee, it's cute, looks the part, is expensive but not too much. If the theme is not exclusive, maybe we'll get some discount on amazon (not holding my breath). We'll see what the summer wave has to offer. If the 3 Kanto would have been separate, I would have considered them over time. I still have plenty of other Lego stuff to buy other than these 'statues' - I suppose I'm not the intended market.

Personally, I think they all look good: there are a few angles where Pikachu is less than ideal but, now seeing more pictures, I think it's fine. I guess you have to consider the medium - I looked at Megablock and theses sets have their issues as well.

I don't know what the GWP is all about so no FOMO for me here. To me, the GWP should be a really (really) well made pokeball - and by really well made, I mean Lego developing a new part for it (3x3x3 or 4x4x4 quarter sphere empty inside (which would be very useful but plenty of other things).

$1400 if I wanted all 3 sets here. Lucky I’m not interested. Phew!

@CCC said:
" @i_amtrunks said:
"Two massive swings from Lego in January, two insanely massive misses.
Nothing different and definitely not better than what Mega had done with the license, except for the incredulous price increases.

Pokemon is a kids brand that has plenty of adult fans, but these sets and prices are ridiculous for who the main target audience of the series is. I know smaller sets are due for a release later this year but what an abject failure from Lego for the second time in a row.

My 10 year old is a pokemaniac who didn't love what mega did (and they had very limited releases here) and loved the look of Eevee, but not for that price, it's not accessible for the majority of kids.

This will be the second massive Lego news drop to the general public that just cannot be supported and explained well by long time Lego fans. "

These are aimed at adult Pokemon fans. Not kids, and not long time LEGO fans. I imagine this "failure" will sell very well."

No offense but really? A bunch of people are going to pay 700$ for 3 Pokémon made out of blocks? I think that Lego has gone absolutely insane. You could buy actual living pets for much less! This is the 7th most expensive set of all time... And the mons don't even look great.

72151 went instantly to my wanted list. My favorite Pokémon, in Lego form! And when I saw 40911, the Pokémon Center music started playing in my head. That's not just me, right?
@CliveyB said:
"I'm not a Pokémon fan, but these look amazing!
Unfortunately the prices are ridiculous, even allowing for the licence uplift. "

Don't you mean the license evolution?

@EtudeTheBadger said:"Trapping wild animals and getting them to fight each other for personal gain.

Nice and wholesome, TLG."

It's part of the lore that Pokémon love to fight. And they only faint when defeated, so we're not talking fights to the death.

@ACubeInABox said:"Ah, yes, my favorite modern LEGO startup wave: $70, $200, $650, and two GWPs that people are more excited about."

40911 isn't a GWP, it's an Insiders reward.

Based on the above announcement, I've extrapolated piece counts and set costs (USD) for the next wave.

Set Pieces Est Unit Cost
30729 257 $79.99
30730 391 $99.99
40887 125 $64.99
72154 347 $99.99
72155 665 $129.99
72156 107 $59.99
72157 324 $104.99
72158 326 $89.99
72159 2870 $3,519.99
72160 285 $79.99
72161 108 $60.99
72162 145 $64.99
72163 210 $74.99
72164 269 $69.99
72165 904 $369.99
72166 87 $54.99
72167 104 $89.99
72168 510 $139.99

@dudeski said:
"Lego is leaning far too heavily on the nostalgic market. Pokémon is still a thing with kids. My two pre-schoolers love Pokémon, so I was looking forward to building play-sets and playing with them. But no, more statuettes. "

There is a whole wave of playsets coming later in the spring.

Not a Pokemon guy, but is Eevee's butt(hamstrings) blushing..? Would love to know what that actually is.

The sets look fine to me, but as previously stated I'm not a good source for accuracy. While they are expensive, I am unconvinced they are overpriced. I actually really love how the combo set looks, especially the display stands.

Why is Eevee's face so flat?

Selling "Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise" for 900 CAD before tax is INSANE. There's no reason for not having this as three separate sets that you can combine if you want to.

I don't care about Pokemon, but I don't understand how people are OK with their latest stuff. It's like they're mocking their fans, and trying to raise the bar again and again because they know they will just "shut up and take my money".

And it's all very similar to Mega's, but that's another topic.

As a lifelong Pokemon fan and card collector these are utterly uninspiring. Compare and contrast these products with the ones Mega has produced. The differences aren't enough to justify the LEGO premium pricing and branding. And in many cases one could make a compelling case that Mega did it better (eg. Venusaur). Just google it, don't take my word for it. You be the judge.

Can't believe this is the best TLG's war room could come up with. Never thought I'd see the day that TLG is ripping design ideation off a third-party competitor- but here we are.

A lot of folks are yet to truly wake up to the new age LEGO as a company, and start analyzing product offerings through a more objective lens. I know that's tough for all of us because our existing bias is so entrenched, but once you get past that you realize LEGO could be doing so much more.

Pre-2020 LEGO: Only the best is good enough.

Post-2020 LEGO: Only the mehhh is good enough.

@Matt_Z_ said:
"As a lifelong Pokemon fan and card collector these are utterly uninspiring. Compare and contrast these products with the ones Mega has produced. The differences aren't enough to justify the LEGO premium pricing and branding. And in many cases one could make a compelling case that Mega did it better (eg. Venusaur). Just google it, don't take my word for it. You be the judge.

Can't believe this is the best TLG's war room could come up with. Never thought I'd see the day that TLG is ripping design ideation off a third-party competitor- but here we are.

A lot of folks are yet to truly wake up to the new age LEGO as a company, and start analyzing product offerings through a more objective lens. I know that's tough for all of us because our existing bias is so entrenched, but once you get past that you realize LEGO could be doing so much more.

Pre-2020 LEGO: Only the best is good enough.

Post-2020 LEGO: Only the mehhh is good enough."

I bought my son the Venusaur Mega Block set
for 30 bucks on sale and its almost as big as the 220ish one here. It also looks better than this one.

I do quite like the Eevee. Not as great of a build as the Creator fox, but it's still reasonably solid enough. Sadly the other set I'd like to get is locked to VIP points, which is rather inconvenient. Hopefully we get a decent Pokemon Center once the playscale sets come out.

Prices on the started and Pikachu are abominable, of course. Pikachu is $30 more than Mario Kart display set, and seems to come with noticeably less. $650 for all three Kanto starters is horrendous as well, I'd have split them all up and had a feature to combine bases together for display figures.

@LostGemini said:
" @person_that_uses_brickset said:
"Looks almost exactly like what Mega Blocks was doing."

MegaBlocks did a really great job on the visual design of their sets (I own a lot of them). However, the building experience of those sets was really average to bad. Elements have to be pushed together with so much force, and missing pieces were a constant worry. I don't think most people really appreciate just how good Lego moulding is until they have used another company's product."

Yeah, I have a bunch of the Mega Pokémon that came in a Pokéball (Including both of the Eevees they did, because as I said earlier, that's my favorite Pokémon) and three of the World of Warcraft sets they did back in the day. But that and a Locutus of Borg figure is the extent of my Mega collection. While I thought those Mega Pokémon were pretty cute, they did not inspire me to collect any of the larger sets, and Mega didn't give me anything that Lego couldn't, outside of the licenses.

@yellowcastle said:
"Based on the above announcement, I've extrapolated piece counts and set costs (USD) for the next wave.

Set Pieces Est Unit Cost
30729 257 $79.99
30730 391 $99.99
40887 125 $64.99
72154 347 $99.99
72155 665 $129.99
72156 107 $59.99
72157 324 $104.99
72158 326 $89.99
72159 2870 $3,519.99
72160 285 $79.99
72161 108 $60.99
72162 145 $64.99
72163 210 $74.99
72164 269 $69.99
72165 904 $369.99
72166 87 $54.99
72167 104 $89.99
72168 510 $139.99

"

I'm all for a reasoned debate but the three sets announced with prices say these cost roughly 10 cents per piece or LESS. Why would you figure one set is going to cost more than a dollar per piece? I know you're joking but there is no indication whatsoever that these sets are going to be more than the normal cost per part? Just because there are a lot of terminally broke people here pissing about pricing doesn't mean we all need to, especially when we know better.

Way too expensive. I've guessing these are ony for the well-heeled adult Pokemon collector? Will there be sets aimed at children? Play sets?

@Zabeth said:
"Way too expensive. I've guessing these are ony for the well-heeled adult Pokemon collector? Will there be sets aimed at children? Play sets? "

Yes and yes.

Have zero interest, but these look amazing (Pikachu's printed face apart). Mega pricey though, but also mega big!

Hang on…Pokemon is targeted to kids…are we allowed to complain about these?

@ScholtzTKO said:
" @CCC said:
" @i_amtrunks said:
"Two massive swings from Lego in January, two insanely massive misses.
Nothing different and definitely not better than what Mega had done with the license, except for the incredulous price increases.

Pokemon is a kids brand that has plenty of adult fans, but these sets and prices are ridiculous for who the main target audience of the series is. I know smaller sets are due for a release later this year but what an abject failure from Lego for the second time in a row.

My 10 year old is a pokemaniac who didn't love what mega did (and they had very limited releases here) and loved the look of Eevee, but not for that price, it's not accessible for the majority of kids.

This will be the second massive Lego news drop to the general public that just cannot be supported and explained well by long time Lego fans. "

These are aimed at adult Pokemon fans. Not kids, and not long time LEGO fans. I imagine this "failure" will sell very well."

No offense but really? A bunch of people are going to pay 700$ for 3 Pokémon made out of blocks? I think that Lego has gone absolutely insane. You could buy actual living pets for much less! This is the 7th most expensive set of all time... And the mons don't even look great."

Its sold out so yep… there’s plenty of suckers!

Pricing is getting absolutely out of hand at Lego - should we start taking bets on when they will move all manufacturing to china whilst we are at it…. Thats the next logical step in the greed machine that is lego these last few years.

Looks like Mega Bloks!

I know nothing about Mario but loved the Bowser and Mario cart sets. It’s the same here: no knowledge about Pokemon but find these sets superb. Same with HP and the gigafigs set (Harry and Hermione). I may like the scale, and the impression that they are not built only from small plates. I thought the big Pokemon set would be a day 1 purchase until I realized it would cost me (with sale tax) over 1000$. My first comment about the price; it’s too much.

@eiffel006 said:
" @dudeski said:
"Lego is leaning far too heavily on the nostalgic market. Pokémon is still a thing with kids. My two pre-schoolers love Pokémon, so I was looking forward to building play-sets and playing with them. But no, more statuettes. "

According to rumors, a bunch of playsets will be announced later this winter. "

Given that Lego is primarily a children’s toy, it would make sense to announce and release the play sets first, or at the very least simultaneously. Usually I am not one to complain about Lego’s commercial strategy, but I am somewhat fed up with all the display sets.

@ScholtzTKO said:
" @oldtodd33 said:
" @yellowcastle said:
"Based on the above announcement, I've extrapolated piece counts and set costs (USD) for the next wave.

Set Pieces Est Unit Cost
30729 257 $79.99
30730 391 $99.99
40887 125 $64.99
72154 347 $99.99
72155 665 $129.99
72156 107 $59.99
72157 324 $104.99
72158 326 $89.99
72159 2870 $3,519.99
72160 285 $79.99
72161 108 $60.99
72162 145 $64.99
72163 210 $74.99
72164 269 $69.99
72165 904 $369.99
72166 87 $54.99
72167 104 $89.99
72168 510 $139.99

"

I'm all for a reasoned debate but the three sets announced with prices say these cost roughly 10 cents per piece or LESS. Why would you figure one set is going to cost more than a dollar per piece? I know you're joking but there is no indication whatsoever that these sets are going to be more than the normal cost per part? Just because there are a lot of terminally broke people here pissing about pricing doesn't mean we all need to, especially when we know better."

When will we stop talking about price per piece- that's outdated by 10 years. Lego routinely throws in 2000 1 stud pieces to game the metric.

Also very offensive saying "terminally broke people"? Really? Like implying you're an idiot and loser if you don't have enough money or won't spend it on this crap? You're cute. No sane person regardless of financial situation would waste 700$ on fake plastic representations of 3 mid sized made up monsters. Unless you are actually employed by lego or trying to get free sets, why even defend this nonsense? I just can't anymore.. "

Price per piece isn't necessarily outdated. In this set there looks to be some 1x's but there look to be a lot of regular sized bricks and slopes.

If someone is terminally broke and they know they can't afford the set then why complain about it? Is it Lego's fault that they made a very nice looking, large but expensive display set they thought many people would like and want to buy? If these sets were actually too expensive they would have stopped making them a long time ago but obviously many people do buy them so Lego will keep making them as long as it's profitable. Stop complaining about things you can't afford, there will always be things you can't afford. Concentrate on things you can afford, it's a waste of time to worry about what others can afford. Then there's the people that just like to complain, the piece count in the set is high enough where the price is justified. I don't understand the pissing about the price when the piece count is high enough to equal out a normal PPP.

I never implied people were idiots or losers for not being able to afford it, you did that. I find it a stretch to buy both in price but space also. I would have loved to buy the UCS AT-AT and the Venator and the Liebherr crane but they are pricey but justifiably so but also very large and displaying them would have been difficult. So technically I can't afford them do to space. But I don't go around pissing to Lego about the size, some people will easily afford them in money and space, that's not the fault of Lego if I can't.

I’m not into Pokémon nor am I familiar with the alternate brand offerings, but these look great to me, just like the recent large Mario sets.

I guess I just don’t understand why the Pokeball (just like BB-8) is so square. We’ve got some really nice slope pieces these days that would seem to be perfect here.

I don't think Lego will move all of their production to China, I think they've learned their lesson there. Why would they build a new production facility in the USA if they planned that?

Yeah, nahhhh. Not my swim lane.

Those cost a lot! I guess LEGO doesn’t want kids or adults without lots of disposable income to buy their Pokémon sets.

I just want bulba....

They all cost a fortune and I'm not falling for it. Pass

(Fan of Pokémon for as long as it's been available in the UK - still not forking over that much money for statuettes)

Preorders are no longer available on the US, UK and AUS sites. Must be selling well.

@yellowcastle said:
"Based on the above announcement, I've extrapolated piece counts and set costs (USD) for the next wave.

Set Pieces Est Unit Cost
30729 257 $79.99
30730 391 $99.99
40887 125 $64.99
72154 347 $99.99
72155 665 $129.99
72156 107 $59.99
72157 324 $104.99
72158 326 $89.99
72159 2870 $3,519.99
72160 285 $79.99
72161 108 $60.99
72162 145 $64.99
72163 210 $74.99
72164 269 $69.99
72165 904 $369.99
72166 87 $54.99
72167 104 $89.99
72168 510 $139.99

"

ummmm, thanks?

Where is Shoe? I want them to make Shoe. Shoe is my favorite.

I was really looking forward to these, but again Lego proves it's greed by targeting adults and releasing yet again...sculptures with insane price tags. This theme could have been so cool for kids

Some sets are kids toys, these are not. That's fine. Lego as we know it died a long time ago. Actual bricks are increasingly rare and Lego shifted to a different kind of toy: 3d puzzles (without the actual puzzling). That is also fine, but it has nothing to with imagination or creativity. Here is an exact manual on how to sticks these tiny bits together, display it and that's it, done. Doesn't that look good? Those bits are not going to end up in a big pile and will ever be used to build something else. I think that is a bit sad and I guess that's why I like playsets a lot more, even as an adult.

Sure, they do also make (a lot) of actual toys, but I feel a lot of them also suffer from too much detailing and tiny stuff.

So the pre-orders have gone. Does Lego charge immediately for pre-orders? I assume that the gym badges GWP has now gone?

Is this a first?
Both https://www.thebrickfan.com/ and https://www.stonewars.de have the numbers on the exact amount available online for 40892 in multiple regions:

USA : 21840
Canada : 16900
AU/NZ : 960
Western Europe : 8500
Central Europe : 6170
Mexico : 190

So roughly 50000 in total.
That's a turnover of 32.4 million dollar/euro for the LEGO Group.

@KingLego said:
"In this case Lego have done something even more crafty to increase their sales of higher value sets. The set with three Pokémon could easily have been sold as three separate sets, with bases that fit together into a bigger whole as a way to provide an incentive for some people to 'buy them all'. However, if Lego did that, some people might only buy the one or two that they wanted. By packaging them together Lego is ensuring (or at least trying to ensure) that people who want one or more of these Pokémon have to buy all three, and they get the increased revenue associated with that."
I always wonder if it actually works like that. I mean, I'm not particularly interested in any of these, but even if I was, there's just no way I would spend that kind of money on it, even if I easily can afford it. I have yet to spend more than €200 on a single Lego set, the more expensive ones I do own I got at a massive discount. And I can't even imagine a set I would so desperately want that I would spend that much. Even less so if I'm only really interested in part of the set.

So what I wonder is if the revenue/profit of one huge set would be more than the revenue of three smaller sets (which on their own would undoubtedly sell in bigger numbers) combined. Though considering they keep doing this, I guess we already know the answer.....

@fromdayone said:
"I was really looking forward to these, but again Lego proves it's greed by targeting adults and releasing yet again...sculptures with insane price tags. This theme could have been so cool for kids "

Good job they are releasing smaller sets soon then.

If the GWp has completely gone, I won't be bothering. No GWP, no point.

@elangab said:
"Selling "Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise" for 900 CAD before tax is INSANE. There's no reason for not having this as three separate sets that you can combine if you want to.

I don't care about Pokemon, but I don't understand how people are OK with their latest stuff. It's like they're mocking their fans, and trying to raise the bar again and again because they know they will just "shut up and take my money".

And it's all very similar to Mega's, but that's another topic."

If fans want to buy LEGO's products at the price offered, how is producing those sets mocking those fans?

@Klontjes said:
"Some sets are kids toys, these are not. That's fine. Lego as we know it died a long time ago. Actual bricks are increasingly rare and Lego shifted to a different kind of toy: 3d puzzles (without the actual puzzling). That is also fine, but it has nothing to with imagination or creativity. Here is an exact manual on how to sticks these tiny bits together, display it and that's it, done. Doesn't that look good? Those bits are not going to end up in a big pile and will ever be used to build something else. I think that is a bit sad and I guess that's why I like playsets a lot more, even as an adult.

Sure, they do also make (a lot) of actual toys, but I feel a lot of them also suffer from too much detailing and tiny stuff."

A lot of play sets are bought for the same reason, especially if by and for adults. Built once and displayed. And later sold on when space is tight or a better model comes out. Some kids will mix them up but even some kids keep them together. It is just a different way of playing compared to decades ago, especially now kids have so many toys unlike in the past.

I really don't see any difference between these, and other adult sets like Modulars, UCS sets, The Titanic or The Endurance, the Eiffel Tower, etc.

@WizardOfOss said: "I have yet to spend more than €200 on a single Lego set, the more expensive ones I do own I got at a massive discount. And I can't even imagine a set I would so desperately want that I would spend that much."

LEGO, both the company and the fandom, has changed. There are plenty of people willing to pay more than €200 on a single LEGO set. For those that don't want to pay that much, LEGO produces huge numbers of sets at lower prices but they might not be in the themes or franchises you want.

That said, I probably spent close to £1K on the original LOTR theme over a decade again. It wasn't all in one go, but it was essentially one big display.

Why does Korea have no pre-order option for these great sets? Official release based on model policy is not good for LEGO fans.

AFOLs: Gotta moan about em all.

Sometimes these comments are like the Pied Piper. Someone says something about "statues" and then everyone starts moaning about it.

Every Lego set aimed at adults is a statue. Last week the moaning was about having a brick making a swooshing sound when playing with the sets, now people are moaning that the sets aren't interactive enough.

Was going to get the big Pokemon set, won't bother now that the GWP has gone. Pokemon scalpers are the worst.

@oldtodd33 said:
"I'm all for a reasoned debate but the three sets announced with prices say these cost roughly 10 cents per piece or LESS. Why would you figure one set is going to cost more than a dollar per piece? I know you're joking but there is no indication whatsoever that these sets are going to be more than the normal cost per part? Just because there are a lot of terminally broke people here pissing about pricing doesn't mean we all need to, especially when we know better."

Ok, reasoned debate: I'm not person which will compare Lego price to random plastic brick company because I uderstand that we pay for customer service and other things around (although I think it's stupid that TLG is paying millions € to celebrities in many countries to promote products at bilboards).
That 10c/piece metric is ridiculous. Often better is judging by size/weight or 'overall value'. Think about sets with minifigs and animals or City set with huge piece creating bottom of the ship. Also like @ScholtzTKO said in recent years there is bunch of 1x1 pieces which cripple that metric.

In last 10 years majority of Lego fans would agree that Winter Village collection is something fair priced and I do like compare sets to those (of course thinking about additional tax for license). WV are not huge, there are also plenty of 1x1 but if we count ratio it's 7c/piece (and those sets got MINIFIGURES and light bricks often).
6800x7c= 480€
How much is license? For sure less, but lets say 70€ from every set will go to Nintendo/Pokemon.
That would be fair priced 550€ set (no minifigs, no big moulds, no lot of prints, no special bricks).

@yellowcastle said:
"As @KingLego noted, this seems to be a good, if not necessarily benevolent, sales strategy from LEGO here. They’ve historically done the same with sought after minifigures, locking them behind a large pay wall before later making them more accessible.

@oldtodd33 - we don’t relinquish our right to grouse just because we can’t afford a high priced set. We can bemoan the recent trends of super-greebling and overly large and complex sets today, even though we seemingly clamored for them yesterday.

As @StyleCounselor would say, This is the way.
As @Crux would say, something something BRYQXZZZ something.

:o)"

For me, Pokémon = Super Mario.

I will get the cool sets once they've reached 30-50%, especially the pricey sets. If they never reach that level, I'm ok not having them.

Lego has made it patently obvious that they are determined to bankrupt anyone who wants ALL the cool sets.

I'm not sure Lego's current scattershot marketing strategy will pay off in the long run. Completionism has driven a lot of sales, and they're clearly making that impossible.

Yet, they're sure making a LOT of money, now!!

You know, this makes me glad I was a Bionicle fan when I was that age and never got into Pokémon as a kid. LEGO saved me from... future LEGO prices.

@StyleCounselor said:
" @yellowcastle said:
"As @KingLego noted, this seems to be a good, if not necessarily benevolent, sales strategy from LEGO here. They’ve historically done the same with sought after minifigures, locking them behind a large pay wall before later making them more accessible.

@oldtodd33 - we don’t relinquish our right to grouse just because we can’t afford a high priced set. We can bemoan the recent trends of super-greebling and overly large and complex sets today, even though we seemingly clamored for them yesterday.

As @StyleCounselor would say, This is the way.
As @Crux would say, something something BRYQXZZZ something.

:o)"

For me, Pokémon = Super Mario.

I will get the cool sets once they've reached 30-50%, especially the pricey sets. If they never reach that level, I'm ok not having them.

Lego has made it patently obvious that they are determined to bankrupt anyone who wants ALL the cool sets.

I'm not sure Lego's current scattershot marketing strategy will pay off in the long run. Completionism has driven a lot of sales, and they're clearly making that impossible.

Yet, they're sure making a LOT of money, now!!"

I can't be having with all of these newfangled Legend of Pokermans and Animinecraftings and the Sonic Mario Kongs, mm. And back in my day if we wanted electrickery in our bricks, we'd have the decency to wait until lightning struck our houses.

Look, I'm a game-nerd. I'm happy to have so many game-IPs available to us, and because I'm so ferociously old, these IPs happen to intersect with the games that I played when I was a kid in the Long-Long Ago, the Before-Times. It's just that - I also grew up really loving minifigure-scaled LEGO-sets, and while I do have some disposable income, I do not need to fill my house with tribunal shrines. Why would I care for massive effigies of Pikachu or even Bowser? I can get those anywhere. Get me affordable and collectable minifigure-sets if you really want my money. You know that Hogwarts-set that we basically had to buy and build in installments? That. Get me that, only make it Hyrule Castle, or Midgar, or the Mushroom Kingdom, or Castlevania.

But do suppress the overpowering urge to have those sets powered with SMART BRRRYQXZzz, please and thank you.

@Briczk said:
" @oldtodd33 said:
"I'm all for a reasoned debate but the three sets announced with prices say these cost roughly 10 cents per piece or LESS. Why would you figure one set is going to cost more than a dollar per piece? I know you're joking but there is no indication whatsoever that these sets are going to be more than the normal cost per part? Just because there are a lot of terminally broke people here pissing about pricing doesn't mean we all need to, especially when we know better."

Ok, reasoned debate: I'm not person which will compare Lego price to random plastic brick company because I uderstand that we pay for customer service and other things around (although I think it's stupid that TLG is paying millions € to celebrities in many countries to promote products at bilboards).
That 10c/piece metric is ridiculous. Often better is judging by size/weight or 'overall value'. Think about sets with minifigs and animals or City set with huge piece creating bottom of the ship. Also like @ScholtzTKO said in recent years there is bunch of 1x1 pieces which cripple that metric.

In last 10 years majority of Lego fans would agree that Winter Village collection is something fair priced and I do like compare sets to those (of course thinking about additional tax for license). WV are not huge, there are also plenty of 1x1 but if we count ratio it's 7c/piece (and those sets got MINIFIGURES and light bricks often).
6800x7c= 480€
How much is license? For sure less, but lets say 70€ from every set will go to Nintendo/Pokemon.
That would be fair priced 550€ set (no minifigs, no big moulds, no lot of prints, no special bricks)."

Alternatively a fair price is what people are willing to pay for it. And if they have to stop taking pre-orders and run out of GWP on the first day, it suggests that the price is fair.

The value of parts and a set is totally subjective. As much as people like to come up with objective measures like price per part or per kilo or even per stud, different people will value sets in different ways. For me, the winter village sets have become boring and they can only really be displayed for a few months as it looks odd displaying them in warmer months. So their value is far lower than a similar size, part count and weight set that can be enjoyed year round.

There's an allocation of 50,000 GWPs worldwide, they've pretty much gone within a number of hours.

There has also been a massive amount of eBay listings for the set. So Lego scalpers + Pokemon scalpers = WMD.

@elangab said:
"Selling "Venusaur, Charizard and Blastoise" for 900 CAD before tax is INSANE. There's no reason for not having this as three separate sets that you can combine if you want to.

I don't care about Pokemon, but I don't understand how people are OK with their latest stuff. It's like they're mocking their fans, and trying to raise the bar again and again because they know they will just "shut up and take my money".

And it's all very similar to Mega's, but that's another topic."

Oh joy, now we've got reheated "you're objectively wrong if you don't hate the new Pokémon game as much as I do" discourse.

@MegaBlocks said:
"There's an allocation of 50,000 GWPs worldwide, they've pretty much gone within a number of hours.

There has also been a massive amount of eBay listings for the set. So Lego scalpers + Pokemon scalpers = WMD."

Plus LEGO Pokemon buyers. They are just as important as the sellers.

Threads like this make me wish there were more options available than just "Like".

@DekoPuma said:
"Threads like this make me wish there were more options available than just "Like"."

The thumb is a like?!?

OMG, I thought it meant “get out of here!”

$200 for a yellow rabbit that could only be loved by a blindly devoted fan, for everyone else just another wave of adult collectables.

@CCC said:
" @MegaBlocks said:
"There's an allocation of 50,000 GWPs worldwide, they've pretty much gone within a number of hours.

There has also been a massive amount of eBay listings for the set. So Lego scalpers + Pokemon scalpers = WMD."

Plus LEGO Pokemon buyers. They are just as important as the sellers."

Well that was going to be me, but pre-orders gone within hours. No GWP, no point. Think Lego should've done a bit more with Lego Insiders to prevent massive scalping.

@Zabeth said:
"Way too expensive. I've guessing these are ony for the well-heeled adult Pokemon collector? Will there be sets aimed at children? Play sets? "

Funny because Jang just released a video saying the most expensive Pokemon set sold out in one day. Just shows you how much money people REALLY have and they can still afford more, these sets should cost few hundred dollars more each. Go Lego !!!

@CCC said:
"Alternatively a fair price is what people are willing to pay for it. And if they have to stop taking pre-orders and run out of GWP on the first day, it suggests that the price is fair. "

No. What you said is "possible price".
If someone is willing to pay something because of obsession/addiction/FOMO doesn't mean it's fair.